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- Some of the world's most recognized companies have founders who served overseas.
- The companies include retail giant Walmart, whose founder Sam Walton served as an Army captain.
- Here are other successful businessmen with roots in the military.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
It should be no surprise that skills learned in the military such as decision-making under pressure, organization, and leadership translate well to the corporate boardroom.
People like FedEx CEO Fred Smith or Walmart founder Sam Walton have become household names for their business success. Less known is their service prior to founding major companies.
After World War II, nearly 50% of veterans went the entrepreneurship route, though that number has substantially declined today. Still, there are currently around 2.5 million majority-veteran-owned businesses.
Here are nice companies started by military veterans.
Paul Szoldra wrote a previous version of this article.
Real-estate giant RE/MAX was cofounded by Air Force veteran Dave Liniger.
Prior to founding "Real Estate Maximums" — better known as RE/MAX— Dave Liniger served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.
From 1965 to 1971, he served as an enlisted airman in Texas, Arizona, Vietnam, and Thailand, according to his LinkedIn.
"The military really gave me the chance to grow up. It was fun. I thought it was a fabulous place," he told Airport Journals. "It also taught me self-discipline and a sense of responsibility."
After he got out of the military, he started flipping houses for profit, and eventually got his real-estate license. He cofounded RE/MAX with his wife Gail in 1973.
Sperry Shoes was founded by Navy veteran Paul A. Sperry.
You can thank a former sailor in the US Naval Reserve for inventing the world's first boat shoe.
In 1917, Sperry joined the Navy Reserve, though he didn't stay very long. He was released from duty at the end of the year at the rank of Seaman First Class.
Still, his experience there and further adventures sailing led to the founding of his company, which eventually created the first non-slip boating shoe. He founded Sperry in 1935.
During World War II, the Navy purchased Sperry Top-Sider shoes by the boatload. Nearly a century later, they are still a favorite of sailors everywhere.
FedEx was founded by Marine Corps veteran Fred Smith.
Back before FedEx was the behemoth logistics company it is today, founder Fred Smith was observing how the military was getting things from point A to point B.
After graduating from Yale University, he was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer and served two tours in Vietnam. He earned a Bronze Star, Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts, according to US News.
Only two years after he left the Corps, he started Federal Express.
"Much of our success reflects what I learned as a Marine," he wrote for Military.com. "The basic principles of leading people are the bedrock of the Corps. I can still recite them from memory, and they are firmly embedded in the FedEx culture."
Walmart was cofounded by Army veteran Sam Walton.
Walmart is the largest retail company in the world.
It was founded by a former Army intelligence officer named Sam Walton. From 1942 to 1945, Walton was in the Army and eventually rose to the rank of captain. His brother (and cofounder) Bud served as a bomber pilot for the Navy in the Pacific.
According to the company's history, Sam Walton's first Walmart store, called Walton's Five and Dime, was started with $5,000 he saved from his time serving in the Army and a $25,000 loan from his father-in-law. Walton passed away in 1992.
Web-hosting company GoDaddy was founded by Marine Corps veteran Bob Parsons.
The company responsible for registering a large portion of the world's web domains, GoDaddy, is the brainchild of Marine veteran Bob Parsons.
Parsons enlisted in the Corps in 1968 and later served in Vietnam, where he earned a Combat Action Ribbbon, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Purple Heart for wounds he received in combat.
"I absolutely would not be where I am today without the experiences I had in the Marine Corps," he writes on his website.
In 1997, he started GoDaddy. In 2014, it filed for a $100 million IPO. He left the company around that time to focus on his philanthropic efforts.
WeWork was founded by Israeli navy veteran Adam Neumann.
Coworking company WeWork's CEO Adam Neumann served in the Israeli navy.
Adam Neumann started a coworking office space for entrepreneurs in New York City back in 2011. Today, the company has 466,000 members across 28 countries, and it is valued at $47 billion.
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Neumann served as a navy officer there for five years before moving to the US in 2001.
Taboola was founded by Israeli army veteran Adam Singolda.
Another veteran of the Israel Defense Forces is Adam Singolda, the founder of content-recommendation engine Taboola.
Like many other successful Israeli entrepreneurs who served in the IDF (military service is mandatory in Israel), Singolda developed many of the skills that would help his company later on in the military intelligence field.
He ended up serving for seven years as an officer with the elite Unit 8200, the Israeli military's version of the NSA.
He started Taboola back in 2007, and you've probably seen his work under the many millions of articles that feature "Content You May Like." The company projected over $1 billion in revenue as well as profitability in 2018.
Kinder Morgan, a North America energy infrastructure company, was cofounded by Army veteran Richard Kinder.
Vietnam veteran Richard Kinder cofounded one of the largest energy companies in North America, Kinder Morgan. Along with his business partner, William Morgan, he started the company in 1997.
He earned his law degree at the University of Missouri before serving in Vietnam as a US Army captain. He was in uniform for four years as a Judge Advocate General officer (aka a military lawyer).
USAA was founded by a group of Army officers.
It may not be a huge surprise that USAA — a company that exclusively caters to military veterans and their families — was started by veterans.
Interestingly, though, it doesn't have just one founder: It has 25.
Back in the 1920s, it was pretty hard for military service members to get (or keep) auto insurance, since it was either way too expensive or likely to get canceled because they moved around so much.
That's why Maj. William Henry Garrison and 24 of his fellow Army officers got together in 1922 to form their own mutual company to insure themselves, according to Encyclopedia.com. Today, the United Services Automobile Association provides insurance, banking, and investment services to 12.4 million members.
Disclosure: Former Business Insider editor Paul Szoldra has USAA insurance and use its banking services.
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May 25, 2019 at 12:27AM
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